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MANILA – The local stock barometer closed almost unchanged on Wednesday while the peso slightly weakened against the US dollar.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed 2.08 points or 0.03 percent lower at 6,512.39.
All Shares also declined 2.78 points or 0.08 percent to 3,469.75 points.
Most of the sectoral indices closed in the negative territory, led by Mining and Oil, which declined 0.65 percent; Industrial, 0.50 percent; and Property, 0.25 percent.
On the other hand, Financials gained by 0.14 percent and Holding Firms by 0.11 percent.
Volume reached 522.37 million shares amounting to PHP3.82 billion.
Decliners surpassed advancers at 97 to 69, while 61 shares were unchanged.
"Philippine shares were relatively flat on Wednesday as Wall Street looks to resume a holiday-shortened week. On the eco(nomic) front, traders are watching for May factory orders data out Wednesday," said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales.
Limlingan said investors are also expecting June’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes, which could shed some light on the path for interest rate hikes going forward.
He said the local bourse was flat as investors stayed on the sidelines due to the release of the Philippine consumer price index data for June.
The Philippine Statistics Authority on Wednesday reported that headline inflation fell to a 15-month low of 5.4 percent.
Limlingan said oil prices were also steady as markets weighed supply woes from cuts for August by top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia against economic data that hinted at weak crude demand.
He added that Brent crude futures were up 22 cents, or 0.3 percent, at USD74.87 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at USD70.06, also up 0.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the peso ended at 55.385 on Wednesday from 55.23 the previous day.
It started the day at 55.30 from 55.2 the other day and traded between 55.46 and 55.28, resulting in an average of 55.39.
Volume reached USD1.16 billion, up from Tuesday's USD801.8 million.
"The US dollar/peso exchange rate corrected slightly higher for the second day in three days, by +0.155 or +0.3 percent to close at 55.385, still near two-month lows," said Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort.
Ricafort said this is ahead of the latest Federal Reserve minutes as a source of new leads for the US financial markets, especially amid recent hawkish Fed signals.
He added that the peso exchange rate could range at 55.25 and 55.45 levels on Thursday. (PNA)
